Part 25 (1/2)
It ith the greatest difficulty that Bulstrode could at any ti to his lips even the name of the woman he loved At this moment the vision of her as he had seen her lately on her husband's ar in under the pavilion of the hotel crossed his ust A sense of his solitude, of his defrauded life, rushed over him as he looked into the eyes of this woman who loved him
”No,” he said intensely, ”I do not know, I do not know I have a code of honor a million years old, but I live up to it She is a wife, I have never told her that I love her”
The girl's incredulity and surprise were great It showed in the s like happiness, crossed her lips She drew a long breath; she held his eyes with hers, then she laid both her arms around his neck and Bulstrode bent and kissed her He held her for one moment and his heart, if it beat for another woh her own Then Felicia heard the door close and the footsteps of the man died away
It was seven o'clock when Bulstrode found himself out in the streets
The fresh air in a keen, salt wind poured over him Down on the beach, for a couple of francs he bribed an attendant to open a bath-house for hi a little in the keen air, he could have been seen running down to the sea, and in a fewswift strokes had carried him far out into the waters which the su into blue
When Ji Mrs
Falconer again or having even bidden a decent good-bye or Godspeed to his fiancee, he was back again in Paris He had run away Well, that wasn't any new thing, he was always at it Paris, in the ave him a hot, desolate welcome, and it ith difficulty that he could find a laould help hi up the affairs of Molly and her Marquis
De Presle-Vaulx caht hies from the ladies as well as a letter which Bulstrode put in his pocket to read down in the country at the chateau of Vaulxgoron in the seclusion of his own room
Bulstrode played the part of the ”American Uncle” to perfection He let the old Marquis beat hiammon; he wandered all over the property with the Marquise He bought the young man for Molly Malines and closed up his beneficent affairs in a very decent ht when Mrs Falconer and Miss Malines should have arrived at the chateau, Bulstrode ran away again Fro Jew He ran up to Norway, fished a little, then took a motor and some people, who did not know any one whoh Italy He continued to travel a little longer, working his way northward until finally--so he put it--dusty as ”Dusty Dog Dingo,” tired as ”Tired Dog Dingo,” Bulstrode found himself in London, drew a deep breath and capitulated
THE SIXTH ADVENTURE
VI
IN WHICH HE DISCARDS A KNAVE AND SAVES A QUEEN
Thehe left for Westboro' Castle, Bulstrode re the ift of unrivalled loveliness as it broke and showered sunlight over England
”The very crannies of the island,” he sold to the sea”
England lay like a viking's cup full to the bri because unusual in the British calendar, and enchanting to the Aentleman because it absolutely accorded with his own mood
It was middle November, and yet there was not--so it seemed as one looked at yellow and copper luxuriance--a leaf lost from the suave harmony of the trees Fare and copse, full-foliaged and abundant, shone out in copper and bronze, and the air's stillness, the patient tranquillity, enfolding the land, made it seem expectantly to wait for soh the forests
On leaving his shi+p at Plyst other letters in hisin the west of England: ”There were sure to be heaps of people Jierly read the subjoined list of names until he saw in a flash the naraphed his acceptance
The following afternoon he threw his evening papers and overcoat into a first-class carriage whilst the guard placed his valise and dressing-case in the rack
As there had been severaltime, he had not i by the side of his carriage He ht, and did, doubtless, pass with others of the well set-up, well-looking lishuished by that personal note which marks the cosmopolitan whose taste has been more or less tempted by certain fantasies of other countries Bulstrode's clothes were brown, his gloves, cravat, and boots all in the same color scheme--one mentions a man's dress only on rare occasions, as on this certain day one has been led to mention the weather That a man is perfectly turned out should, like the weather, be taken for granted
Bulstrode on this day, travelling as he was towards a goal, towards the one person he wanted above all to see, had spent so a florist's in Piccadilly, after giving his order for flowers to be boxed and expressed to Westboro', he had selected a tiny reddish-brown chrysanthemum which now covered the button-hole of his coat's lapel; it created a distinctive scheht the eye of the lady who, hurrying froht of the American and started It appeared as if she would speak to hiuard, as about to fasten a placard on theof a carriage:
”Please---just a second--won't you, guard?”
The bell rang, and Bulstrode found hiuard shut the door, which closed with the custo, and pasted over thethe exclusive and forbidding paper--RESERVED